SSD prices have dropped up to 30% this year so far, but they may go even lower

[DragonSlayer101]

In context: The global chip shortage combined with a host of other issues resulted in a shortfall of PC components in the last couple of years, causing prices to go up astronomically in some cases. But now with a slowdown in PC sales, buyers can get hardware at affordable rates and SSD prices in particular have fallen substantially and are expected to go even lower in the coming months.

SSD prices have been on a nosedive since January amidst a massive surplus of NAND flash. As reported by Tom's Hardware, SSDs have become between 15% and 30% cheaper since the beginning of 2023, with more cuts expected in the coming months. NAND flash memory manufacturers have been reducing their output since last year to stop the precipitous drop in prices, but things are expected to get even better for customers in the coming months.

As noted by the report, most of the 1TB drives in the market are cheaper now than they were in the first week of January. That includes the WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD, which is now available for just $59.99 instead of the $89.99 it was listed at just two months ago. SATA drives are also cheaper, with the Samsung 870 Evo currently listed on Amazon for $64.99 instead of the $89.99 asking price in early January.

It's worth noting that not all drives are cheaper now than they were a couple of months ago. Some of the SSDs whose prices remain the same include the Samsung 990 Pro, Hynix Platinum P41, and WD Black SN850X. These are currently some of the fastest consumer SSDs in the market, meaning folks wanting the very best won't be getting the same kind of discounts for now.

The cheaper prices were projected last year, when analysts from Trendforce predicted that the glut of memory chips and solid-state drives would push prices down throughout 2023.

The reason for the excess inventory is the slowdown in demand for PCs, which is creating a demand-supply mismatch, resulting in a surplus of 3D NAND, memory chips, and SSDs, among other components.

Meanwhile, the report states that there's still some more downside to the market, with prices expected to fall further in the coming months. So while buying a new SSD right now is not a bad investment, folks holding out just a bit longer can possibly get even better deals in the near future.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97830-ssd-prices-have-dropped-up-30-year-far.html

 

[wiyosaya]

I can wait.

 

[DZillaXx]

Can't wait for larger capacity at lower price.

Pretty damn easy to max out a 2TB SSD.

 

[3volv3d]

I just can never justify more than £50 per TB no matter if its new tech or not.
And while its easy to max out 2tb I wonder if SSD will have issues with larger capacities like mech HDD's did.
Anything over 2tb, and you really should be RAIDing them just in case one decided to check out.
Maybe I am just old and kranky!

 

[Mister_K]

I just can never justify more than £50 per TB no matter if its new tech or not.
And while its easy to max out 2tb I wonder if SSD will have issues with larger capacities like mech HDD's did.
Anything over 2tb, and you really should be RAIDing them just in case one decided to check out.
Maybe I am just old and kranky!

Better to be on the side of caution.

 

[Julnor]

For gaming purposes there's not even a difference between pcie 3.0x4 and higher, and some SATA3 SSDs are better on random reads and latency. Random reads have been about the same forever, Intel did have an SSD that had very high random read speeds but they spun off to Solidigm and it was expensive too, not even sure if it was consumer level.

Most people just need space, maybe 2 TB or so, at a decent price, rather than paying huge markups on SSDs and motherboards.

 

[StupidPeopleSuk]

Some of the SSDs whose prices remain the same include the Samsung 990 Pro, Hynix Platinum P41, and WD Black SN850X

So THAT'S why I just got a bunch of 1TB SN850X's for $139 ?

which were well over $170 back in January.....

 

[wiyosaya]

I just can never justify more than £50 per TB no matter if its new tech or not.
And while its easy to max out 2tb I wonder if SSD will have issues with larger capacities like mech HDD's did.
Anything over 2tb, and you really should be RAIDing them just in case one decided to check out.
Maybe I am just old and kranky!

Highpoint has some NVMe HBA bootable raid controllers - https://www.highpoint-tech.com/hba-nvme-overview

 

[noel24]

Only lower capacity drives got discounts, because everybody already got them. If I see 8 or 16TB SSD drive with current price/volume of 500GB SSDs, then I will consider opening a credit with my bank. Currently my data HDDs are the loudest in my PC at idle workloads.

 

[daffy duck]

So any good deals on 8TB drives out there yet? If not then nothing has really changed.

 

[rsmith222]

'We have to replace all of the TLC drives with QLC and PLC to make more profit!'

 

[ddferrari]

So THAT'S why I just got a bunch of 1TB SN850X's for $139 ?

which were well over $170 back in January.....

Today on Amazon:



Shoulda waited a little longer!

 

[Blqckout]

Nope, still as expensive ad november 2022 here

 

[abood62]

'We have to replace all of the TLC drives with QLC and PLC to make more profit!'

Hi sir, could you explain the difference between these three types? Thanks

 

[Nintenboy01]

Today on Amazon:

View attachment 88901

Shoulda waited a little longer!

I was able to order the 2TB SN850X for just $110 last week - not sure if it was some sorta flash sale or a pricing error, it's back to $160 now (which is still fairly affordable, it was double that price last year).

 

[toooooot]

Hopefully, when I am ready to swap my 500gb nvme for 4tb, it will cost the same price.

 

[NikoBB]

...Currently my data HDDs are the loudest in my PC at idle workloads.

If you have a utility room or a non-residential room, you can easily remove all HDDs into a separate system unit by filling it with them to the eyeballs in RAID10. Noise won't matter. But it is important that all your PCs and laptops have a network card of at least 2.5Gbps, and preferably 5, and that the entire home network is designed for a 5Gbps cable (and preferably 10),

The main problem with the impasse of silicon chips is the monstrous consumption of today. Because of this, wild noise under load.

Until humanity switches to optics with 500 Gb / s, at least for all peripherals (including video cards) and takes it all into the back room, there will be no comfort in working in living rooms.

All that should be on your desktop is a monitor, a keyboard with a mouse and a docking station for the necessary peripherals at your fingertips. Everything else, including the system unit, should be in the back room. Then there will be complete silence.
---
The quality of SSDs and HDDs, as well as architectural reliability, is rapidly declining with each new series, while the capacity is growing at the same time. This is a digital dead end. Falling prices only contribute to the reluctance of manufacturers to do thorough output testing in batches. And nothing more...

 

[phenomx8]

I wish this news become reality soon, its still expensive here, and yes there is some cheaper one available with high capacity, but its just another DRAMless stuff that can be slower than HDD after burning its cache capacity

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

I just can never justify more than £50 per TB no matter if its new tech or not.
And while its easy to max out 2tb I wonder if SSD will have issues with larger capacities like mech HDD's did. Anything over 2tb, and you really should be RAIDing them just in case one decided to check out.
Maybe I am just old and kranky!

How long would something like that take to set up? I have a few TB+ HDDs I use. Would it be something that needs to always be on? I'd like to know more

 

[Avro Arrow]

You know that the picture of SSDs is old when an OCZ Vector 180 is in the pile.

 

[daffy duck]

Hi sir, could you explain the difference between these three types? Thanks

Triple level cells, quad level cells and penta level cells. Triple-level cell (TLC) – holds three bits per cell. Quad-level cell (QLC) – holds four bits per cell. To be able to read the three different cells in TLC requires 2^3 = 8 discrete voltage levels,. QLC requires 2^4 = 16 discrete voltage levels and this is very tough to do. Error rates and wear are much higher on QLC. As for PLC that is not even on the horizon and hopefully never will be. The technology required to discriminate 32 voltage levels with low error rate and wear would be a nightmare. If it does eventuate don't expect it for another 10 years IMO. QLC is still way behind TLC but has improved. I would buy a QLC 8TB drive for photo storage say, if it had a 5 year warranty and say 8 Peta byte writes

 

[rsmith222]

Hi sir, could you explain the difference between these three types? Thanks

I did but ended up with an article so I'll give you the short answer: Get a 3D TLC drive. Don't get a QLC nor PLC drive. If you have data that you want to put onto an SSD, without the SSD being plugged in for very long periods of time, get a 3D MLC drive. (Note that Samsung misleads people with its 'MLC' label, where TLC and probably QLC drives are deceptively called MLC by that company.) Stay away from planar TLC drives, if those are still made.

 

[AndreV]

Hi sir, could you explain the difference between these three types? Thanks

SLC(Single Layer Cell/One Bit Per Cell) was the first and the best in endurance but small capacity.
MLC(Multi Level Cell/Two Bytes per Cell) increased the storage capacity but health started to decrease.
TLC(Three Bits per Cell) medium endurance and sizes.
QLC(Four Bits per Cell) lower endurance but big in sizes(up to 8TB).
PLC(Penta/Five Bits per Cell) the worst (as of now) in terms of endurance but very big in sizes.
HLC is next but as of now is only theoretical.

 

[abood62]

SLC(Single Layer Cell/One Bit Per Cell) was the first and the best in endurance but small capacity.
MLC(Multi Level Cell/Two Bytes per Cell) increased the storage capacity but health started to decrease.
TLC(Three Bits per Cell) medium endurance and sizes.
QLC(Four Bits per Cell) lower endurance but big in sizes(up to 8TB).
PLC(Penta/Five Bits per Cell) the worst (as of now) in terms of endurance but very big in sizes.
HLC is next but as of now is only theoretical.

Thanks so much, much appreciated

 

[abood62]

Triple level cells, quad level cells and penta level cells. Triple-level cell (TLC) – holds three bits per cell. Quad-level cell (QLC) – holds four bits per cell. To be able to read the three different cells in TLC requires 2^3 = 8 discrete voltage levels,. QLC requires 2^4 = 16 discrete voltage levels and this is very tough to do. Error rates and wear are much higher on QLC. As for PLC that is not even on the horizon and hopefully never will be. The technology required to discriminate 32 voltage levels with low error rate and wear would be a nightmare. If it does eventuate don't expect it for another 10 years IMO. QLC is still way behind TLC but has improved. I would buy a QLC 8TB drive for photo storage say, if it had a 5 year warranty and say 8 Peta byte writes

Thanks so much